Combating Desertification and Drought

Climate Change Promises Tough Times for Asia and Africa – Report

By Stephen Leahy
Extreme heat, flooding and water and food shortages will rock South Asia and Africa by 2030 and render large sections of cities inhabitable, if the world continues to burn huge amounts of coal, oil and gas, the World Bank is warning.

FAO Highlights Inseparable Links Between Food and Water

By Thalif Deen

Since food and water are so closely interlinked, there is a lingering fear based on the assumption, if there is no water, there will be no food.

Small Farmers Buffeted by Climate Change

By Thalif Deen
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has long warned that a quarter of the world’s farmland is “highly degraded".

Zimbabwean Farmers Adrift Amid Power Struggles

By Busani Bafana
For the past five years, farmer Melusi Mhlanga has spent nearly 200 dollars each season for inputs, but the maize yields have not matched his investment. 

Carbon Dioxide Emissions Hit Record High in 2012

By Carey L. Biron
Greenhouse gas emissions worldwide rose by 1.4 percent last year, setting a new record, according to data released Monday.

Peak Water, Peak Oil…Now, Peak Soil?

By Stephen Leahy
Soil is becoming endangered.This reality needs to be part of our collective awareness in order to feed nine billion people by 2050, say experts meeting here in Reykjavík.

Fresh Water “More Precious Than Gold” in Bangladesh

By Naimul Haq
Fahima Begum rises each morning at dawn and walks two kilometres to a small pond, the nearest source of fresh water. On her way she passes the rusty old hand-pumped tube well that used to supply water to her village in Bangladesh’s arid Barind region until the water table here dropped out of reach.

Stressed Ecosystems Leaving Humanity High and Dry

By Stephen Leahy
Everyone knows water is life. Far too few understand the role of trees, plants and other living things in ensuring we have clean, fresh water.

Caribbean Farming Gets Its Roots Wet

By Desmond Brown
As Caribbean communities grapple with the entwined challenges of climate change and food security, modern technologies offer hope that the region's stagnating agricultural sector can be made more profitable.

Migratory “Flyways” Decimated by Human Expansion

By Silvia Romanelli
Migratory birds, which play an important role in the complex web of life known as ecosystem services, are under threat as never before, with some species facing extinction within the next decade.

Protecting Niger’s Desert Salt Pans

By Ousseini Issa
The Bilma community has mined the salt pans in the massive Ténéré desert region in northern Niger for centuries. But the threat of the ever-encroaching desert has become a real concern as locals here struggle to cope with a decline in salt prices.

Critics Slam California “Forest Offset” Plan

By Katelyn Fossett
More than two dozen environmental organisations are urging California Governor Jerry Brown to disregard recommendations from a United Nations task force to include so-called forest “offsets” in the state’s new emissions-trading scheme.

Rich Countries Drag Feet at Climate Talks

By Stephen Leahy
Another week of international climate negotiations ended in Bonn, Germany last Friday, but there was little mid-level bureaucrats could do when world leaders remain in thrall to the fossil fuel industry, say environmentalists.

Building an Agricultural Empire

By Michelle Tolson
Genghis Khan knew about hard times. The founder of the Mongol Empire, which spanned most of Eurasia until roughly 1227, Genghis and his clan had to survive on their wits and natural surroundings, often resorting to meals of “green leafy things” when food was scarce.

From Herders to Cultivators

By Michelle Tolson
When the food-strapped Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) appealed to the Mongolian government for food last month, it signaled a major turning point in the public image of this Central Asian country, which has long struggled to feed its own population of three million.

The Clock Is Ticking on Koala Conservation

By Neena Bhandari
Australia’s iconic marsupial is under threat. Formerly hunted almost to extinction for their woolly coats, koalas are now struggling to survive as habitat destruction caused by droughts and bushfires, land clearing for agriculture and logging, and mining and urban development conspire against this cuddly creature.

OP-ED: Letting Nature Take Its Course?

By Erik Assadourian
Is sustainability still possible? Yes. Is it still probable? No. With bold action today, tomorrow, and in years to come, we could succeed in creating a sustainable and prosperous society. But what does bold action actually mean?

U.N. Chief Singles Out Monaco for Raising Climate Awareness

By Thalif Deen
When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Kiribati in 2011, he had "an unexpected insight" into the fear that stalks the Pacific Island nation.

Canada Pulls Out of U.N. Body to Fight Desertification

By Stephen Leahy
Canada is pulling out of the United Nations convention that fights droughts in Africa next year, making it the only country in the world not participating in the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Water Crisis Hitting Food, Energy – And Everything Else

By Stephen Leahy
How much water does it take to turn on a light? It took 10,000 litres to make your jeans. Another three big bathtubs of water was needed for your two-eggs-toast-coffee breakfast this morning.

Water and Sanitation Seek Rightful Place in Post-2015 Agenda

By Thalif Deen
When the General Assembly unanimously adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back in 2000, water and sanitation were reduced to a subtext - never a stand-alone goal compared with poverty and hunger alleviation.
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